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lightful and instructive pursuit, and all who have leisure 
to prosecute attentive studies therein, find greater interest 
as they advance from general views to minute details. In 
geology this is particularly the case, but with this important 
advantage, that whereas in botany, entomology, and various 
other branches of natural history, it is only occasionally that 
new and important practical results can be obtained, of such 
a nature as to have any direct bearing on the welfare of 
mankind, — in geological pursuits, the whole scope and object 
of inquiry is intimately connected with the very existence 
of the human race. The dust of which we are formed and 
to which we must return — the sustenance derived whether 
from animal or vegetable food — the raiment which we wear 
— the fuel which warms — the houses which protect us — the 
implements employed in agriculture, and mechanical arts — 
the trees which ornament the land and form the bulwarks 
of the ocean — all these have not a remote, but an imme- 
diate dependance on geological conditions. Climate greatly 
depends on the elevations and depressions of a district, and 
the conformation of its coasts and the navigation of its rivers 
are also dependant thereon. Thus there is scarcely any 
subject relating to the physical conditions which affect our 
comfort and prosperity that is not closely identified with 
geology; and hence it follows that detailed information on 
geological features must ever be considered as a valuable 
accession to human knowledge. 
If the leading results of geological investigation are thus 
widely extended, it is equally obvious that its connection 
with agriculture and mining are of the first importance. 
In these departments it is that exact specific information 
should be collected, and for obtaining such specific inform- 
ation nothing can be more admirably adapted than the 
sections presented by railway cuttings, and by borings and 
sinkings. The exact nature and depth of the soil and 
